CHAPTER 49 -ALLIANCE- PART I
LUNA LYRIC
The elf princess looked at me with a smile that had been lost in disbelief but was quickly taken aback by my appearance. Though it wasn't in my mind planned to meet like this after some time, it was sooner or later that we had to meet again in different circumstances.
Froghyrith, still having his sword out, pointed to the guy who was taunting me with such little power. But his power is enough to withstand at least sentinel-rank, I thought seeing how the laid back black haired got up on his knees. He is able to support this type of strength, 10% of my strength though, any more than that would be killing the poor guy.
I half-turned my head to give Froghyrith and Someissoa a nod, that it was okay to put away their weapons until I authorized it or until something else that hasn't been in Hannah's future sight.
Hannah had disclosed to us that she could see the future, the location of the happening would be marked by her in all of the maps of the different dimensions that existed. In one of her future visions, she had seen that an army–stronger like the one we faced back in Ezar–would attack the continent of Afreon. However there was a downside to her vision, there wasn't a correct date to it, meaning that the attack could happen in any moment and we wouldn't be prepared for it.
So we needed to make this alliance happen before our homeland continent was destroyed by the enemy's hands–especially when Alter's status is still unknown.
"Luna…"
Hearing my name brought me to the present, facing the source of it. The elven princess didn't say another word but I knew what she wanted to know, if it was really me. I gave her a smile to ensure that it was me.
Looking back on it, Charlotte had changed–a lot. In so little time, she had matured to match ours. Her princess-like features were almost long gone, instead, over them was a determined girl who wished for the survival of her people and friends.
Including her aura, it seemed more fierce than before. Her control of mana must be exponential to others. She will become a powerful warrior if she continues to follow the path of an Espion or better yet a powerful monarch.
Then all the monarchs of each kingdom came running down the hallways, showing themselves to me along with a face of skepticism when they all saw me. A moment of silence went on–aside from the guy who was still on his knees feeling more pain than I thought he felt. Their eyes lingered on me for more than a minute before Someissoa and Froghyrith appeared in front of me like they were protecting me.
Wha… no, now I know what they are doing.
I once more looked at the black haired guy who was in front of the mighty dragon warriors. He could still be on his knees while he's in the presence of the dragons? I retract my statement, maybe they will be able to fight this war without any loss… or at least that's what I think.
A smile creeped on my face. "So there are more of you?" I said while looking up at the ceiling where there were cracks already forming from such mana being used in a building just to break it, smart or dumb? Whatever it is, something tells me that it's going to be a mess in a couple of seconds.
Somei, Frog. take one each, there seems to be more than one. I let them know through my telepathy spell that I somehow didn't lose after gaining a mana core. Their concerns fell on my like water to a dry rock. Don't worry, have you forgotten who I beat before?
Even if it's two against one they are not experienced enough to even last long enough before their mana reserves dissipate. The dragons took a second before accepting my answer.
Well that was still nerve-wracking, I said to myself. After still spending all this time with the dragons, their seriousness feels like a world being brought to my body. Now.
As I said that, the ceiling above us cracked before breaking, the pieces of cobblestone fell upon us. Following that, two silhouettes fell with the stones and took the monarchs from the disaster. Charlotte on the other hand used a barrier-type spell with her earth affinity, like a true warrior. Her mind and skills are the prerequisite for a proper thinking when things go south or horrible, I commend her for that. But that is not the only thing that is needed in battle, a clear mind is one but not all, knowledge about the field and strategies are second.
There's a long road ahead for her, and it's painful.
Without much caution, the two silhouettes rushed towards us with malice intent crashing with their weapons against the dragons weapons. Their clashing created a force pushing the dust that rose up from the stone crashing into the ground, being cleared, I was able to see the monarch's faces when they saw how the dragons easily took the blow with one hand on their sword.
Charlotte's spell then unbounded from the ground, her eyes scanned the two beings in front of me and then landed on me again. She probably thinks that I've brought an enemy to the continent huh?
I let out a sigh. The sound of wind being rippled by a sharp blade rushed to my ear. Not turning around, I conjured a wall with my earth affinity stopping the fast blade from getting near me. Taking a step backwards, I turned and walked outside to where the sunlight laid on the grassy ground. How times have changed.
Enhancing my senses with mana, I found out that there was a particular magic being used. A magic that I haven't seen in my life, could it be an illusion or something else? It's no use thinking about it, the most I can do is just go with the flow.
The silence that was in the monarch's building now followed here–though I could hear the rumbling that was happening in the wanna be castle–only the leaf's crunches as the one who attacked earlier. Another crunch sounded some the left side, completely opposite from the one before time. So the other one is here… that makes things easier now that I don't have to find them.
"Come out already, I know there's two of you." I announced, waiting for an answer but all I got was the birds singing on a tree not far as ten meters. Are they trained assassins… if so they were trained perfectly that I'm having a hard time trying to keep up with them.
With mana in the atmosphere, I unleashed a amount of coverage to connect all the mana within the ten meters of me. Spikes that were made with mana assembled from the ground causing a penetration from any type of jump range. In seconds, both beings unbounded their spell or illusion.
"You finally show yourselves," both of them looked at me with worried expressions. Calling upon the mana technique that Alter showed me and Julie when we were young with a mana core felt a little different, it felt more stable than when I had a mana ring.
Their aura exceeds the Espion's aura by many folds, in any case this will be troublesome if it means that their spells might be even powerful. I need to end this fast, but what if I show them the difference between me and them?
Despite that a war might break at any moment, this is what I wanted to do for a very long time to those who think that war is an easy thing to finish. It's true that they probably didn't think that way but my mind and emotions told me that I needed to do this and show the people here that with us here we could win this war.
Enhancing the mana blade I made with my fire attribute began to emit heat from it, little parts of fire started to fall from it like lava. As it landed it didn't disappear, not for a long time.
"It's showtime," I let out.
I swung the fire sword which created an attack like a line of wind but instead it was hotter and more lethal. Seeing as it was coming towards her, the short blue haired girl dodged it letting the attack to land on a dried up tree that catched on fire. I cursed. Meanwhile the other girl attacked my blind stop, thankfully it was blocked by my cape.
She let out an angry curse, but I countered her attack with another flame spell. Noticing my counter, the green haired girl–no older than sixteen–jumped backwards evading the swing of my weapon.
"Too late," I stated as my weapon dispatched a small grain of fire to her green hair, burning only the tip of it. "A little late and your hair catches on fire." Clearly she wasn't too happy about my comment, her lime green eyes shrinked in hatred and dashed forwards without any precaution.
The other teen girl advised her companion about my taunt but she didn't listen and instead was met with an earthen wall spell that I ignited in the last second, to block her surroundings I summoned more around her leaving the teenage girl in a box.
"Inferno"
Strong flames that were conjured beneath her started to damage her, the screams of suffering filled the outside of the box. "Katie!" The blue haired companion let out, rushing too like her friend did earlier. Aura flushed from her into the atmosphere causing a chilling feeling as it did, and like her friend, she too was enraged.
Getting into a defensive position, waiting for the strike that the blue haired girl was going for. I felt a hard hit on my back, she had used an earth spell to damage me while I was concentrating on her. The attack sent me off the ground being unable to comprehend how I couldn't sense their affinities but only their presence.
Being still twenty feet high, a water spell formed around me. I recognized this spell on the first glance, it was the spell that Julie used on Alter back then. It was only to ensure that I wouldn't be able to use magic in any time I was in this spell. It was quite the interesting spell when Julie told me about it and now seeing it first hand and being tested with it brought my expectation of their spells to be useless on this level.
Glancing at the blue-eyed girl seeing that her expression and emotions had overcurr what they were moments ago, from fury to hope. That is when I made up my mind to teach these new high ranks what defeat tastes like, and now with this move her emotion will once more change.
Though getting a mana core was essential, the ring phases along with many other spells were not knowledgeable when it came to still having them before the mana core. Julie and I struggled to even fight back when the Elementals sent their low-ranking soldiers that used tricky spells since we weren't even used to having this type of power. The timeless moments where we had to improvise our spells to even consider some as dangerous to the dragon kingdom.
But within those time and moments, the seconds and minutes. We would always try to use the one thing that Alter provided us when we were weak in control of mana and affinities: Ring Phases. The meaning of the ring phases were to be an addition to our strengths, stacking them in other words…or as Alter would put it. However the downside being that the stress and toll it puts on the body was a risk of a double edge sword.
Still having our hypothesis about our new recent discovery about the power in question, we decided to only use it when things got hairy or even worse cases.
My excitement and curiosity were already at their peak when we found how the power worked but we didn't know the price for it, at least that's what I thought. Relaying in the power I once had along with the codename of such, now was the time for me to use it and demonstrate the people of Afreon the true power that will end the war and bring peace to this continent and many others. That is what both me and Juliette say on the surface, yet deep down we knew it was to make him proud of us.
An old feeling came back to me, the immersive feeling of power that I had in this continent, the power that had many bandits and even nobles scared to their bones as they'd shake with dread upon hearing the name of.